Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

France's Law to "Protect" Prostitutes Is a Case Study of How a Government's "Good" Resolutions Simply Displace Problems Elsewhere

French prostitutes should be happy due to a new law acting in their protection and, just like in Sweden, criminalizing clients, shouldn't they?

As Matteo Maillard writes in Le Monde (not in terms as sarcastic as mine), it has simply displaced the problem, with French filles de joie moving to Switzerland en masse.

MASSIVE ARRIVAL OF FRENCH GIRLS

In recent months, [the message box of the largest brothel in Geneva, the Venusia] has been overflowing with casting applications from young French women hit by the crisis, or who fear the increasingly repressive legal framework towards them, after the National Assembly's December vote of the law that penalizes the clients of prostitutes.

"I no longer accept any girls but blondes between 18 and 25 years" [says Madame Lisa]. These past two weeks, twenty new French girls made ​​their début at the Venusia and the pace continues to accelerate. "This is a massive arrival. Four years ago, I had fewer than five French girls. Two years ago, we went to one girl in three. Since the beginning of winter, 70% of my girls are French. The penalization law makes them flee. They find refuge at my place."

Through a random search on the Internet, [a Parisian named Anastasia] falls on Geneva escort lounge websites. After several unsuccessful attempts, she is allowed to join the Venusia.

"IT IS BETTER JOIN A BROTHEL IN SWITZERLAND"

"The French girls are a phenomenon that we have observed since 2003, following the passage of the Sarkozy law criminalizing passive soliciting", argues Michel Felix de Vidas, the communications officer at the Aspasia, Geneva's prostitute rights association. "In recent months, escort agencies and parlors confirm a significant increase in the number of French girls. The phenomenon will regulate itself because the market is not expandable and the places of work are counted. "

… One night in July 2013, when she had been hooking [at the Bois de Boulogne ] for a month, [Julie] was already considered a competitor to dislodge. "Another girl came up to me with a knife. Fortunately, a frightened customer opened the door of his car and we sped away."
She never more prostituted herself in France, preferring a "Switzerland where we do not have to go into hiding and risk our lives," she says.

"Neither the prostitutes nor their customers should be blamed, but the networks that dirty our reputation. The law should fight for girls coerced into the profession. I 'm not a coerced girl. It is a choice. And this choice does not make me a disgusting person or a sex object. This law does not even recognize in us the status of being human."